The Bank of England’s Rate of Change

Monetary policy is distorting politics as much as investment.

After years of speculation, we finally know what it takes for the Bank of England to raise interest rates: a wage crisis, a red-hot housing market, a vote to leave the European Union—and Jeremy Corbyn. Only amid all of those and more has Governor Mark Carney decided to implement the first rate rise since 2007.

Thursday’s monetary decision—raising the policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%—merely reverses the Bank’s panic rate reduction after last year’s Brexit referendum. The new rate still is the same level the Bank thought was...